Murmur-ations

  It’s been a while since I’ve blogged because I’ve been swimming lengthy edits through my novel (and still going), but on a rare day of coming up for air and doom scrolling through Facebook, a video popped up of Rick Astley talking about the making of the video for his smash track, Never Gonna Give You Up. It transpires it was a bit of a Heath Robinson affair with buying his own clothes for the shoot, self-choreographed dance moves driven by fear and locals shouting to turn the music down. He said the whole experience was ‘ridiculous’. However, I loved that video back in 1987 and would watch it at any opportunity when it was on Top of the Pops. I even had a poster of Rick from Jackie magazine in my room at South Bank Polytechnic. But he was a more than that. I admired the carefully styled quiffs for Rick, and even the actor Rupert Graves. This androgynous mix of cream macs, roll necks and wide leg jeans that cinched in at the ankle, was my staple in my first year as a degree s...

  After the euphoria of graduating from my MA, I’ve had a massive dump of realisation that I have a novel to finish. To date, I have three more chapters to write, one of which is a zombie fight showdown, where … spoiler alert … one of my key characters snuffs it. There is also a gruesome dream sequence and a heartfelt scene that will have me weeping as I write it. I’m often asked why I write in the genre I find, personally, so frightening. Paul Tremblay, an American horror writer who is the master of creeping dread, openly admits he’s scared of everything, and because of that, he implants his fears into his novels. For me, it’s the fear of societal anarchy that feeds my dystopian horror. Growing up, I was a secret horror fiction fan, stashing them between my poetry library book loans long before I started wearing black. However, going to university, leaving London to work in Portsmouth, and then having a baby left me with little time to read fiction. It wasn’t until I joined th...

So, I’ve only gone and got an MA in Writing Genre Fiction, and with a distinction. And like a feather in a puddle of mud, it’s still sinking in. I grew up believing that poems always had to rhyme, horror fiction was the poor relative of the literary world and that writing stories was just a hobby, not a way of life. But Edinburgh Napier university pushed all that to one side with a mahoosive shovel. It wasn’t easy at times (not helped by breaking my elbow four weeks into the MA), but they’ve nurtured self-belief, and given me the skills to take my writing to another level. I can't wait for the next chapter. So, if you’re thinking of eustressing your creative writing … opportunities are waiting just for you.                                                             (Photo  © Paula Gilfillan. All Ri...

A recent late-night radio show asked if listeners had ever been given strange presents. This was sparked by the producer of the show admitting that her brother had bought her a weight-loss drink for her birthday. I remembered one Christmas being given by my Great Aunty, disposable toilet seat covers for public toilets. But I loved that present –  she was a practical person who loved baking and her dog, as well as having a wicked sense of humour. And so, whenever I use a public toilet, I always think of her (but the disposable covers have long gone). And it was also a story worthy of being read out live on air by the DJ that night. What present have you been given that was as endearing as the person who gave it to you? (Photo by Ekaterina Shevchenko on Unsplash )

You never know when frisky seagulls, a turd left in a pair of pyjamas and a nun in a hurry will lead you to writing award winning poetry. The writer Lesley Glaister, talks about using ‘memory refracted through imagination, and often unconsciously, into something new’ mixing it with more recent events. She calls it ‘the real stuff of fiction’, giving emotional punch and ‘truth’ to our work (thanks to Anderson’s Creative Writing book for this). So, enough with the theory. She’s basically saying that we take our past experiences, chuck them in a mixer and blend them with more recent memories to give us impactful and emotional fiction. A lot of my comedic work is based on the peculiarities of real-life events, but fictionally masked. The following three poems that I recently had published on Witcraft , are three such examples: One Night Stand Seagull was inspired by witnessing two gulls ‘getting it on’ on a rooftop while I invigilated Higher Modern Studies. Nun In A Nissan Micra ...

In my late 20s, I found myself in an abusive relationship. It was unexpected, for he began as the perfect partner; as they all do. And after each event, he apologised and said he would change. Through the support of many friends, I eventually saw and felt the impact he was having on me, and found the courage to leave the relationship. I’m truly grateful to them. But it took time to process this experience with support from Women’s Aid, and communicate it through the only medium that brings me comfort: creative writing. But the poem still lingered in my file manager. A chance reading of a PhD thesis that discussed domestic violence gave me the impetus to share my poem with a supportive audience: the 2024 Edinburgh Napier University’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign (in support of the same-named UN Women campaign) to help raise awareness and inspire change. Unexpectedly, I won first prize in the creative writing section. It was the final validation I needed. I’...